The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, as a popular song tells us, “Has gone about as far as it can go”. Beyond where we are now, there is a new realm, into which Humanity can boldly proceed only by using innovative intelligence and caution, leaving behind the past, which would then become history Our past is replete with all that we have learned and accomplished from this Paradigm Shift. A privileged portion of humanity has benefited by the technical expertise of our Scientists, our Technicians, and our Engineers, guided and chaperoned by Business + Banking.
We who claim to be in this privileged portion of our society are benefited by the many things that are produced and distributed by this revolution – things and services to fill the many assumed needs and wants in over-whelming abundance. We have learned, for ourselves as well as for our neighboring species, how to convert and utilize substantial portions of Nature’s vast reservoirs of energy. We have produced manufacturing plants (Industries), large and small, for the purpose of providing those many artifacts for living – housing for shelter, food for sustenance and well-being, clothing for protection from the elements, as well as transportation and communication to make each of these products most easily available. Each of these many Industries is supported and controlled so that its products can be distributed through the institutions we have hitherto, proudly called Business and Finance.
These two institutions operating together use what is widely referred to as the money-price system to control both the production and the distribution of these many products of Industry. The Many types of Communications and Transportations systems co-operate in varying degrees with the “Business-Banking” consortium, to make these many industrial products available to the consuming public (if and when the consuming public is able pay the price). Of course there are several billion individuals who do not have any access to the use of this money price system. These are the poverty-stricken individuals who seem to be destined forever to co-exist without the shelter of proper Housing; without proper Wearing Apparel; without sustaining Food and Health Care Services. These conditions exist in spite of the boasted accomplishments of this Industrial Revolution, which now makes it possible for mankind to produce an abundance of all things necessary so that each human being should be able to live and enjoy life in good health and fellowship.
Beyond into the vast unknown tomorrow of this twenty-first century, I see no need to have either of these two institutions, which we call “Business” and “Banking”, as well as “Party Politics”, to accompany us any further in our quest for the “Compatible society”. It can be readily demonstrated that our Engineering, our Science, and our Technology, along with our Communications (advertising) and Transportation systems, plus the voluntary request from individuals, operating and controlling the multitude of the planet’s Industrial Plants, can produce on demand a surplus of things and services for all human beings as well as all other life forms on our planet to enjoy.
This being the case, let us leave Business-Banking, as well as Party Politics along with their related institutions, in the care of the historic past and proceed unencumbered and free as we build the “Compatible Society”, the society of the future.
For some time, it has been quite evident, that our Free-Enterprise, Capitalist System, controlled by “Business-Banking”, has created too many unsolvable situations for mankind to further peacefully tolerate.
Now is the time! Our Communication Systems as well as Industrial Technologies are anxious and willing to be set free. The world’s industrial establishments, using only Nature’s restrictions of checks and balances, can I am sure, very well distribute on demand whatever, whenever and wherever needed. In this new concept of society, these twin institutions, Business-Banking could take on the job of keeping an accounting of the earth’s potential stock of all Raw Materials including our Energy Resources. On the other side, for this equation to balance, it would be necessary to record, by modern electronic methods, the converted products (goods and services) derived from this natural wealth of the earth and dispensed as requested to the citizens of the planet.
As I indicate in my book, “The Other Way”, all sorts of things and services, everything now transacted by our money system, could be produced and distributed by means of an electronic requisition, assuming the form of a “Share Card”. This special card would, first of all, serve as each person’s ID. As such it would be his or her universal Credit Card, giving each person direct access to the fulfilling of any and all of the person’s physical and spiritual needs, without the use of money tokens or credit cards of the usual kind.
Timothy Haystubble (Grass Roots Philosopher)